An online home to showcase and discuss interesting articles, interviews and other media about actors associated with all the various "Star Trek" television shows and movies. I also write on equal rights, social justice issues, INFJ-isms, film & television production, urban homesteading and whatever blows up my skirt. Figuratively speaking.
In addition, I'm working on setting up a new urban homesteading blog - stay tuned.

Monday, August 19, 2013

It Gets Better: Zachary Quinto

It Gets
Better: Zachary Quinto

Deciding what to do for my very first blog post was not all that
difficult.

In May, I went to see the new movie Star
TrekInto Darkness, and became
nostalgic for my own years working on Star
Trek. First, I found Lindsay Robinson
who has the website www.startrekmagic.com while
searching for a mailing address for Zachary Quinto, the new guy playing Spock.
Lindsay also happens to be an admin over at ZQ’s Facebook forum website, so I
spent my horribly boring summer playing online over there. In addition, I did a set of three interviews
for her site, and in them I mention wanting to make a difference and not
knowing how. Second, I read a great book
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, which
really hit me in the gut with its message to live authentically and take action
to make connections. Third, I read a
book by the psychic Sylvia Browne where she says each person has a Primary Life
Theme when we incarnate. What jumped out
at me was the Life Theme of “Catalyst” – to quote, “They are society’s “spurs”
who are here to inspire, mobilize, and make things happen. They’re the first in a group to say, “Let’s
stop talking about it and just do it,”
and they especially excel under stress.
Their biggest hurdle is trying to feel at peace without a project to
take on and accomplish.” (1) Besides
being my son’s mother and advocate, I have been looking for a way to make a
difference for a long time on a larger scale.

The convergence of these three things took place within a two week
period at the beginning of August 2013. The
synchronicity could not be denied – this was beyond coincidence. I have wanted to blog for a while now, but I
needed a reason. I did not know much
about Zachary Quinto prior to this summer, and while reading some of the
interviews he’s done and stuff he’s said since STID, I was impressed as hell, to say the least. Then it occurred to me that a LOT of the Star Trek actors are deep and thoughtful
people (I have met and worked with three different ST casts – DS9, TNG and Voyager), and it seems silly to share
pretty pictures online without examining the other side of the coin – the human
being beneath the pretty picture. I
thought it would be nice to share some of the profound things these people have
said and done as human beings, not as their Star
Trek characters. The idea crashed
over me like a wave. This blog was born.

Now, why is Zachary Quinto the guinea pig for my first post? He is a talented actor and producer, an
interesting human being and is incredibly eloquent, but he is only one of many
in the Star Trek universe. I chose him first mostly because of this
quote and his ability to walk the talk: “I believe in the power of intention to
change the landscape of our society – and it is my intention to live an
authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.”(2). Who speaks like this anymore? It’s beautiful. As I also have that goal, to live an authentic
life of service, it jumped out at me immediately. And another quote: “I think all of us in this industry can
encourage dialog and discourse about socially and politically relevant topics,”
Quinto says, “It is incumbent upon us to do it to a certain extent.”(3) Point taken and challenge accepted!

I admire his bravery in coming out as gay as an up-and-coming actor/
producer in Hollywood. That alone is
laudable, but he is also doing what he can to save the lives of young queer people. How much more noteworthy is that? It beats simply acting in a television show or
movie any day. As a pansexual person
myself, I am thankful for people in the public eye who take a stand for what’s
right and good and true. Therefore, my
first post includes his video for the website “It Gets Better”, at http://www.itgetsbetter.org
. In
addition, he supports “The Trevor Project”, a national organization which
provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ youth, at http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ .

Transcript of his “It Gets Better” Video: “I’m
Zachary Quinto and I want to add to the chorus of voices rising up against the
kind of hatred and ridicule that led to the senseless and heartbreaking
suicides of Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Billy Lucas, Tyler Clemente and Raymond
Chase in just the past few months in this country. And those are only the names
that we’ve come to know. There are countless other teens and young adults who
are struggling to find a sense of identity and belonging in a chaotic and often
unforgiving world.

And to you, I say it gets better. There is help to be found. There are
places to turn. There are people who will listen at Trevorproject.org,
1-866-4U-Trevor, is a place to start. Start there -- start anywhere -- but
start by believing that life is worth living, and you will find your way. And I
am proud to be a voice that stands to remind you of that, any time
you ever come close to forgetting it.”

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About Me

I am a single mom raising a special needs child while working and trying to figure out life. Oh, and I worked on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: First Contact once upon a time (and some other shows and movies). I am a preschool teacher, voracious reader, mosaic artist, urban homesteader, a poet and a thinker. I am an unapologetic do-gooder with delusions of reality; a kitchen witch who raises children and vegetables and who wants to save the world. All of these words describe everything and nothing about me. I am a catalyst. Boldly go.